U.S. Besieged by Jewish Left and Right
November 10, 2009 Immigration, Israel, Jewcy, Jewish Community
I wrote,
The Jewish communal infrastructure has sought to seek a balance between the larger Jewish Left and the more active Jewish Right. That balance has traditionally been to adopt and promote the foreign policies of the Jewish Right, and the domestic policies of the Jewish Left.
Both the Jewish Left and the Jewish Right think they are fighting the good fight. But together, they are fighting American interests.
12 comments
Sup DK It’s been a long time I hope we can put the past behind us.
Anyways I thought I’d throw in that the problem with the Republicans (Jewish and nonJewish) is that they don’t really make their case on social issues so much in blue states and instead seem to largely go for “moderates” who are liberal on social issues and conservative on economic issues.
If one does not make his case one cannot expect people to agree with it.
I have to say, I think Dan makes a good argument. I’d like to believe he’s right – you know that’s my orientation – but I’m convinced he’s right about the Neocons. Whatever one may think about what needs to be done now, it can’t be denied that they (and the batshit insane Christian fundies they got into bed with) are largely responsible for getting us into the socioeconomic mess we’re in – and from which we almost certainly won’t recover.
More importantly – you couldn’t have gotten him to make those changes to the website before pissing him off?
LOL if DK lets me post here and don’t hold a grudge against me I’m gonna respond to you Jeff. XD
Jeff, I agree and noted in my essay that the concerns about the Neocons are valid. Dan and I agree on many aspects of the Jewish Right.
Where we disagree sharply is on the Jewish Left.
SJ, you may post, just be nice. No personal attacks.
Jeff,
The Neocons weren’t the ones pushing the Community Reinvestment Act, they weren’t pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they certainly aren’t pushing Obama’s attempt to destroy the private sector with a zillion dollar “stimulus: plan that isn’t working.
Ichabod Chrain, the Neocon demands for deregulation in the name of a free market helped the meltdown in numerous and critical ways.
See “The Warning” on the right list of videos.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
Also, Ichabod, Obama isn’t trying to “destroy” the private sector. He’s doing what he thinks will be effective, but, like everyone else, he’s in denial. It won’t work. There’s no coming back from this. America is finished – and, as we go down, we’ll be taking everyone else down with us.
Where we disagree sharply is on the Jewish Left.
You don’t like anyone any more, do you? I fear I’ve been a bad influence on you.
thanks DK. XD
Jeff- The neocons were absolutely right becuase it’s a good idea to spread democracy consumerism secularism etc. to the middle east so that they can forget about the fanatacism and be chilled like ordinary people.
And what the heck does the christian right have to do with people spending on too much credit and banks giving too many subprime mortgages? XD
Lastly I would like to say that blaming “deregulation” for the whole thing seems to be the same thing as blaming Bush because individuals decided to use too much credit.
The Christian fundamentalists have been an integral part of this. 20th Century Fundie History 101:
The South was Democratic for generations. When LBJ signed the civil rights legislation, he alienated them (which he knew would be the case, but he did it anyway, which in my view makes up for a lot, but that’s another issue). They weren’t much involved in politics at that time, anyway; they’d been humiliated after the Scopes trial in 1925, and had retreated to the margins of society, preferring to avoid “sinful” secular society. During the mid to late seventies, a new generation of leaders arose from within their ranks and seized control of their denominational bodies, the largest and best known being the Southern Baptist Convention. Men like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell began telling their constituencies they had a “Christian duty” to “reclaim this nation for Christ”.
This was during the Carter administration. The Republicans, embarrassed and out of favor after Nixon and Ford, realized that conservative Christians constituted a huge, untapped power base. They set about the business of forging an alliance which persists even now. They couldn’t have gotten anywhere over these past thirty years without the support of the Christian Right.
The Republicans, who since not long after Reconstruction had been the party of big business and high net worth individuals, by pandering to these poorly educated and not-too-bright people, were able to convince them that they were their best friends, and that the Satanic “lib’ruls” represented the greatest evil ever spawned by hell. The fundies, for their part, have enjoyed a sense of power they’ve never before experienced, and have developed an unprecedented attitude of entitlement. They’ve convinced themselves that this is their nation alone; that the founders were all conservative Christians, and anyone who disagrees should just get the hell out (Ann Coulter thinks they should just be killed). Of course, they’ve made a perfect cock-up of everything (not that we were in such great shape to begin with). Our current economic state is the result of the behavior of the criminals and lunatics the Christians have spent the past three decades voting into office. Science has gone out the window; even teachers in blue states are afraid to teach evolution for fear of offending any conservative Christian parents who may be lurking. We’ve become an object of ridicule among all of the other developed nations. The Western Europeans are so busy laughing at us it’s a wonder they can get anything done.
That is what they have to do with all of this.
Oh, and this –
The neocons were absolutely right
The Neocons have never been right about anything. Anything. If a Neocon tells you the sky is blue – it’s time to get your vision checked.
I propose the re-establishment of the Jewish monarchy, but make that an elective monarchy, please, so there’ll be something left for the yidn to discuss and kvetch about.
Lest anyone think the Christian Right is relatively benign: http://www.npr.org/templates/t.....=120746516
^ With host Terry Gross. Huh. What religion does Terry Gross belong to? What is her ethnic background?
I know the answer, I just want to hear you say it.
They sound pretty thcary! Are you thcared, Jeff?
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